A World Worth Protecting

Everything happened too quickly. The eye that the Eternal Star had transformed into exuded a sudden, incredible suction force on the battleship, drawing it towards the Eternal Star. As the battleship headed for the Eternal Star, Wang Baole finally recovered from his initial shock. He decided to abandon his original plan and suppress his desire to leave right now.

He remembered that the Demonic Eye Art he had chosen to practice was a killing art. It had been one of the cultivation techniques that he had found in the Dark Sect during his Dark Dream.

The cultivation technique had been incomplete and could only be mastered until the Nascent Soul realm level. The Dark Sect wouldn’t have valued such a divine power. After all, the sect had a vast collection of cultivation techniques. However, the Demonic Eye Art’s mysterious and demonic nature had differentiated it from the rest. The Dark Sect eventually modified the Demonic Eye Art, which showed how unique and powerful the Demonic Eye Art was!

Wang Baole remembered reading the footnotes written by a powerful Dark Sect cultivator in the records of the Demonic Eye Art. He had lamented about the fact that their records stopped at the Nascent Soul realm!

The Divine Eye civilization and the Demonic Eye Art must share some kind of close connection. Maybe… I’ll be able to find the missing records for the cultivation technique here? Wang Baole’s eyes shone with an intense light. The battleship was approaching the Eternal Star, and the temperature was rising. A wisp of gray Qi burst out of the eye that was the Eternal Star and enveloped the battleship, passing through its hull and encircling every cultivator on board.

Wang Baole’s head began to buzz. He had no time to study the gray Qi that was encircling his body. The battleship began to shake violently in the next moment. It charged ahead, at an indescribably fast speed, and entered the Eternal Star. Then… it vanished!

Both the battleship and the cultivators on board disappeared!

Time passed, perhaps eons, perhaps a mere moment. Wang Baole awoke to waves of acute agony rippling through his body. His eyes were lined with blood, and his breathing was heavy and uneven.

He wasn’t the only one in pain. Everyone on the battleship, including the Grand Supreme Elder, was shaking. Many had even fallen to the floor due to the extreme agony they were experiencing. There were also dozens of cultivators who appeared unable to withstand whatever just happened. Perhaps something unexpected had occurred during the process, but their bodies exploded suddenly, blood and flesh splattering on the walls and floor of the battleship!

The Grand Supreme Elder seemed to release a sigh of relief then. His raspy voice entered everyone’s ears!

“Fellow cultivators, please do not blame me. The Holy Crest Sect has reached a point where we have to place everything we’ve got on a single bet. I’ve mortgaged the entire sect and its assets in exchange for an opportunity to activate one of the two mystic techniques that belong to the Divine Eye royal family… the Eye of Ten Thousand Demons!”

Doubt and suspicion colored everyone’s faces when they heard what the Grand Supreme Elder had said. Cultivators at lower cultivation realms looked pale, the terror on their faces clear for all to see. The looks on the Nascent Soul realm elders’ faces were dark as well. They stared at the world outside the battleship, solemnity coloring their eyes. Then, they looked at one another. Finally, the elder with the longest length of service in the sect spoke.

“Grand Supreme Elder, this is an extremely important matter. You should’ve told us earlier that you were going to do this…”

Wang Baole narrowed his eyes. As he tried to catch his breath, he lifted his head and stared at the cosmos through the battleship’s windows. He wasn’t bothered by the Grand Supreme Elder’s mortgaging of the sect and its assets. There were three things that caught his attention. The first was the royal family, the second, the two powerful mystic techniques, and the third… the Eye of Ten Thousand Demons!

So, the royal family… Wang Baole fell into contemplation. His eyes flashed when he studied the cosmos again. He could no longer see the Divine Eye civilization and its Eternal Star. What he saw might be an Eternal Star as well, but it was significantly smaller. It gave off a dim light, as if it were on the way to being extinguished!

This… was no longer the Divine Eye civilization!

Teleportation across star systems? Wang Baole suddenly understood what the Grand Supreme Elder had meant when he had spoken about activating the Eye of Ten Thousand Demons. It was to perform advanced teleportation!

Wang Baole continued his musing, retracting his gaze and, instead, studying the gray mist surrounding his body. The mist hadn’t disappeared after the teleportation, it continued to encircle everyone on board the battleship. However, it was so faint that no one would notice it if they didn’t pay attention.

Wang Baole had noticed it, but only because the Demonic Eye Art inside his body had activated and given off waves of hunger that spoke of its desire to consume the gray mist.

Perhaps it was because they were now miles away from the Divine Eye civilization, but Wang Baole could finally suppress the Demonic Eye Art’s hunger. He thought about the Eternal Star’s mysterious transformation into an eye. He still had no idea what had actually happened after that. As a result, Wang Baole decided to play it safe and not act rashly. He turned and looked at the Grand Supreme Elder, who was being questioned by the elders.

The Grand Supreme Elder took a deep breath, and a fierce glint flashed in his eyes.

“So, telling you now is considered too late?”

The elder with the longest length of service in the sect fell silent. The other elders kept their silence as well, including Wang Baole.

The Grand Supreme Elder had a solemn expression on his face as his eyes swept across every elder, including Wang Baole. Then, he started to speak in a slow, serious manner.

“There’s no need for me to explain to all of you in detail the current state that the sect is in. You should know better than anyone. An extraterrestrial raid is hardly a simple matter. All safe star systems in the vicinity of the Divine Eye civilization have been robbed clean, meaning there isn’t much left for us there. This wouldn’t have been a problem in the past, but the Holy Crest Sect is in dire straits now. In order to reverse our fortunes, we need to bring back a rich bounty… Rather than striving for mere survival, we should just wing it!

“That is why I’ve mortgaged our sect in exchange for a chance to activate the Eye of Ten Thousand Demons. We have the right to make a two-way teleportation and teleport to an unknown part of the cosmos—one that is far away from the Divine Eye civilization!

“I’m going to be honest with everyone, I don’t plan to return if we fail, and I’ll be taking the battleship. As for the rest of you, you’ll have to come up with sufficient resources to exchange for teleportation back to the Divine Eye civilization using the Eye of Ten Thousand Demons!

“That’s all I have to say. Please… think this through carefully.”

The Grand Supreme Elder gave Wang Baole and the other elders a long, meaningful look after he was done speaking. Then, he turned and entered the training chamber. He knew that what he had done was going to create mass panic, but he didn’t care. In order to avoid any unnecessary drama and violence, he knew that he had to give the others some time to digest what he had just told them and come to terms with their current circumstances.

A commotion broke out amongst the cultivators as soon as the Grand Supreme Elder left. Everyone began discussing things heatedly. The eyes of a few elders had even turned red with anger, but there was nothing they could do. The power to activate the teleportation that would send them back was with the person who had purchased said right. They had to either acquire sufficient resources to buy their passage back home or kill the Grand Supreme Elder and snatch the right to activate the teleportation from him. There was no other way to return to their home planet.

Of course, the Grand Supreme Elder’s words might have been blunt, but they were true. If the Holy Crest Sect didn’t return with a huge bounty to replenish its stores, the sect wouldn’t survive for long. That was why… it might be better to just risk everything and wing it!

In Wang Baole’s view, the Grand Supreme Elder was, without doubt, a ruthless character. He recalled the near-imperceptible gray mist he could see around everyone and came to a conclusion about what it was. It must be a mark of the Eye of Ten Thousand Demons that was going to bring them home.

It seems that the Eye of Ten Thousand Demons can allow a person to travel extremely long distances. Its seal can also bring someone directly back to the Divine Eye civilization. So, is this a two-way teleportation array formation? Wang Baole was slightly confounded. This was completely different from the Demonic Eye Art that he was practicing. He wasn’t panicking though. With a calm expression on his face, he began talking with a few elders standing next to him. He was going to find out more about the royal family and the Eye of Ten Thousand Demons.

Everyone was currently experiencing a myriad of feelings over what had just happened. What Wang Baole was asking wasn’t any secret. In fact, the elders were surprised by his ignorance on the matter before they recalled that he had just been promoted to the position of an elder. Distracted by their own emotions, the elders didn’t think too much about Wang Baole’s questions, and the latter soon got the answers he needed.

The royal family and the three main sects might appear to coexist peacefully in the Divine Eye civilization, but in reality, the tensions between the two groups ran deep!

The royal family was unwilling to just stand by and watch as it was replaced by the three main sects. However, it couldn’t reclaim the power it had granted the sects, and it had no power to retaliate against them. The royal family was struggling and barely surviving. The sects wanted to remove the royal family from the picture altogether, but due to certain reasons unknown to the rest, they couldn’t.

The instrument that allowed the royal family to survive to this day, the same instrument that prevented the sects from wiping the royal family out completely, was… the two great mystic techniques that belonged to the royal family!

The elders had no idea what the first mystic technique was. They had only heard legends of this mystic technique and how it could strike fear into the heart of a Planet realm cultivator. It could only be mastered by the royal family, so outsiders would find it difficult to steal the mystic technique for their own.

The second mystic technique was the Eye of Ten Thousand Demons. The royal family was the owner of the mystic technique, and certain unique reasons ensured that ownership couldn’t be transferred to someone outside the royal family. It appeared to have something to do with the royal bloodline. User rights, on the other hand, were a completely different matter. The current political climate in the Divine Eye civilization meant that the royal family could no longer monopolize the rights to the mystic technique. The three main sects had taken over the rights to use the mystic technique!

Interesting. A ghostly light flickered in Wang Baole’s eyes as he learned what he needed to know. He thought about how the Demonic Eye Art had helped in strengthening his cultivation to nearly freakish levels, and the thought of obtaining the royal family’s mystic technique surfaced in his mind.

There’s no rush in leaving the Divine Eye civilization. There’s a high chance that the royal family… owns a more advanced Demonic Eye Art!